The holiday season is a good moment for collaboration between Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta with the branch church of Wonosari Javanese Church in Bendungan Karangmojo through a Vacation Bible School (Sekolah Alkitab Liburan - SAL) activity for Sunday School children. This activity integrates learning about the Bible, gardening, and life skills.

This idea came up from thoughts about early childhood development, namely pre-operational, where children learn about the environment around them that they see, touch, and feel based on their senses. This will encourage the development of thinking ability so that they can learn cognitively independently, behave well, and independently carry out daily activities. They can develop language skills and problem-solving.

Trustha Rembaka, S.Th., manager of the Stube HEMAT Garden, guided the series of SAL events for Sunday School children which were held for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday, June 25-26, 2024). Activities carried out on the first day included getting to know more about the Bible, the names of the books, and their authors, of which from the sixty-six books of the Old Testament and the New Testament there are around forty Bible writers with various backgrounds, from a healer, king, prophet, fisherman, teacher, tent maker, to a farmer and warlord. This also shows the message of the Bible itself about God's presence in a person's life, so that children also experience growth in faith. The next activity was to go around the Stube HEMAT garden to observe and record what plants and animals are in this garden. They specifically observed the types of harvests that could be obtained from plants, whether from the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, or fruit, which was continued by telling their findings. The closing activity on the first day was making orange beverage to hone their life skills, where they boiled water, squeezed oranges, added sugar, and make their desired tasted. Previously, they mentioned the types of oranges they had met before.

On the second day, Trustha introduced songs about the names of books to Sunday school children. This helps them remember the names of the books. In addition, by using colored cards with the names of the books, they sorted out which ones were included in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The cooking activity is filled with the practice of frying mushrooms. They distributed the tasks to clean the mushrooms, prepare the dough, and prepare the tools for frying. Each gets the opportunity to fry mushrooms in the beginning until to drain it. In the gardening activity, they learn about planting media and choosing the available plant seeds for them to grow, covering eggplants, tomatoes, celery, and chilies. They chose eggplants and tomatoes to be planted in polybags and taken home to be cared for at homes.

Although short, this event left an impression on the participants, as it’s expressed by Anggita, a fourth grade at BOPKRI Wonosari 2 Primary School, expressing her joy in learning at this event, being able to plant vegetables, and meeting friends. She also invited others to visit the Stube HEMAT garden.

Give children the opportunity to learn about spirituality, how to relate to nature, and to develop their life skills that equip them to live their lives in the future. Happy learning and growing kids! ***